In the Middle Before I Began
by hopetoedit
Summary: Rose Weasley wants people to notice her as more than just another member of the Weasley family. What she doesn't know is that she already has caught someone's attention and he is the last person she thought she would ever impress.


Disclaimer: Oh, how I wish I owned the characters and story of Harry Potter, but unfortunately only these ideas are mine.

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The family of four swept onto platform nine and three quarters and Rose Weasley felt like erupting with excitement and nervousness. She had been waiting for this day her whole life and now, it was finally here. She stayed close between her parents and her little brother Hugo; having her family there was starting to calm her nerves. They met Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, James, Albus, and Lily on the platform. Being in the middle of her family, Rose felt safe, but she also felt cornered. The life of a Weasley was bitter sweet. You always had friends, people who would protect and stick up for you, but on the other hand you were always overshadowed by family. For once Rose wanted to be her own person, not the one people expected her to be. The day to do that was finally here.

Rose met her dad's face and with a laugh he said, "If you don't get into Gryffindor we'll disown you." She forced a laugh and nervously looked away. Her mom quickly told her that he was just kidding. She hoped he wouldn't be angry if she didn't get sorted in Gryffindor because she thought it would be kind of exciting to be in a different house.

"Rose," Albus said.

"Al, "

"Excited?"

"Yes, and nervous."

"Nerves, Rosie are for children."

"Stupid remarks, Albie are for pricks."

"Very funny cousin."

Their small talk was soon interrupted by Uncle Harry saying, "Look who it is." Ron's eyes darted to the direction that Harry tilted his head. Rose's eyes widened. It was the Malfoy family; she knew it in an instant because of the white blonde hair. Rose thought the men were better looking than always described, the boy even quite cute for an eleven year old.

"Don't get too friendly with him." Her dad mumbled. Rose didn't need to hear it; she heard enough stories about the Malfoy's, eavesdropping whenever Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny stayed over late. Rose had been fascinated by the stories, but now the family seemed even more alluring, not frightening or remotely contemptible. "Make sure you beat him in your marks. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains." Her dad finished and with that he grabbed her shoulders. "You're going to be brilliant, Rosie, I know it!" He kissed her on the head.

"I love you Dad."

"I love you too pumpkin."

"Bye mum. I love you."

"I love you too, dear. Don't turn into your father and forget to write."

Ron gave Hermione a rueful look and blushed.

"C'mon pumpkin, we have to find seats." Albus mocked.

"Are you going to shut your mouth or do I need to get James to cast a permanent sticking charm? I'm sure he would be delighted to do so."

Rose grabbed her owl, Zuku, and her trunk, then boarded the train with Albus. The two first years searched the corridors for seats until they found a round-faced boy with yellowish blonde hair sitting all by himself.

"Hi I'm Rose." The boy looked up rather quickly.

"I'm Henry Longbottom." He said with a shy smile.

"Oh, Your Professor Longbottom's son, I'm Albus Potter and this is my cousin Rose Weasley."

"This is my toad Trevor the Third. Don't try and feed him Pumpkin Pasties; he'll puke all over you like he's downed three puking pastilles. The antidote didn't work on him. I tried it." Albus shot Rose a strange look and muttered, "Bizarre,"

Rose rolled her eyes at Albus and said, "He's quite cute. What year are you, Henry?"

"First, how about you?"

"Albus and I are both first years."

"Brilliant!" Henry said.

The introductions were cut short when Dominique stuck her head in.

"Albus, Rose I have been looking all over for you both. I found James, but he wouldn't let me sit, oh hello Henry!" Dominique said.

"Hi Dominique."

"Lots of Weasleys here Henry whatever are we to do?"

"Oh shut it Albus!" Dominique said. Then noticing the silence she went on, "Is everyone excited about sorting?"

"Actually I am. What house are you in?" Henry said.

"Gryffindor, carrying on the Weasley tradition, of course," Dominique was a second year, "You better make me proud Rosie. I'll save you a seat at the table."

Rose just laughed; For once why couldn't they wait and see what happened to the next Weasley.

***

Rose's excitement changed to anticipation and eventually to nerves as she waited to be called to the stool.

"Scorpius Malfoy…hmmm…not quite as clear as your father was. Perhaps, Ravenclaw…no that won't do. SLYTHERIN!" The Slytherin table roared with chatter and whooping as he took his seat; Rose's head roared with the thought of getting Slytherin and sitting next to him at the feast,

"Albus Potter, GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindors cheered and Rose clapped. It seemed to take forever to get to W. Once they were there, there was no turning back.

"Ms. Weasley, please take the stool." Headmistress McGonagall whispered.

Rose sat anxiously as the hat was placed on her head.

"Another Weasley of course…wait! Rose Weasley…hmm…a strange one you are," Rose blushed at this. "RAVENCLAW!" Gasps were audible throughout the great hall. Rose smiled; yes, she was different. As she made her way to the Ravenclaw table her blue eyes randomly locked with Scorpius Malfoy's, feeling a blush rise to her cheeks, she quickly averted her gaze and took a seat. Rose wound up wedged between a pair of twins with Henry Longbottom sitting in front of her.

"Hello, I'm Lorcan Scamander." One of the twins said; he had long blonde hair parted extremely straight down the middle.

"And I'm Lysander." This one's hair was in a ponytail.

"Hi, I'm Rose."

A girl next to Henry spoke up with a beautiful Irish accent and a big smile, "I'm Abbey Geraghty."

"It's so exciting, being in Ravenclaw, isn't it?" Rose beamed, amused by her obvious enthusiasm her fellow Ravenclaws smirked, some laughing. Not even noticing their looks, she began to daydream about all the possibilities in the year ahead.

"Hello, I am your head boy, Carlow Geraghty. This is Ravenclaw's head girl Charlotte Ahern. We will be showing you around the castle." Rose noted that Carlow was the cutest redhead boy she'd ever seen and being a redhead, she didn't usually find them attractive.

"You will solve a puzzle every time you wish to get into the common room."

"What if we can't solve it?" Rose asked Abbey.

"Then you wait for someone else who can."

"I guess we better try to come in pairs then." They smiled and Rose could tell that they were going to be good friends.

"Anyone want to solve the puzzle?" Rose shot up her hand.

"Weasley." He said and pointed at her. Rose walked to the bronze bird and it said, "What day is very close but never occurs?" It popped out of her mouth before she could stop it.

"Tomorrow."

The portrait swung open and the first years clapped. Rose grinned and made her way back to Abbey.

Lorcan poked Rose and then said, "Your cousins are waving at you."

"Oh." She looked up on the moving staircase to see Albus and Dominique waving. Rose lifted her hand. Her thoughts raced to the thought of her dad finding out she didn't get into Gryffindor. She would have to write as soon as she got to her dorm.

***

The first week of classes raced by and Rose knew her favorite subject was Potions. It was tough, but she loved the challenge. She thought that Charms was fun and interesting and that History of Magic was the exact opposite. She soaked up every word and did all her homework; by Friday evening she was exhausted. Saturday morning came way too early with Abbey at very loud volumes.

"Rose, wake up; we can't be late for Flying Lessons and we still have to eat." Abbey threw a pillow at Rose and she then remembered why she liked having her own room. Eventually she dragged out of bed and they started to walk down to the great hall.

"Not a morning person, I take it." Abbey mumbled. Rose grunted. They found Lorcan and Lysander who were already half done with their breakfast and sat down to eat; Rose had tea and porridge and Abbey munched on a biscuit.

"Hello Rose." Lorcan said.

"Hello Abbey." Lysander added. Rose hid a grin at the formality of their greeting. Their tones matched each other exactly and they were both wearing hooded jumpers with radishes on them.

"Good Morning!" said Henry cheerily.

The five chatted about flying and brooms. Rose kept relatively quiet and tried to calm her nerves. Where was her family when she needed them?

They headed down to the quidditch pitch and Rose's wishes were granted as she ran into Albus.

"Hey nerd, how are your classes?" He said.

"Great, since I'm going to pass all of mine." Rose grinned at Albus.

"I'm going to ignore what you just implied. How did your parents take the Ravenclaw thing?"

"Mum was ecstatic; Dad on the other hand was rather disappointed."

"I'm sure he'll warm up to having a failure in the family." How she loved Albus.

"Yeah, I was worried about it, but not anymore. I'm kind of nervous about flying actually."

"Rose your aunt plays for the Holyhead Harpies. You have nothing to worry about."

"Right." She was still worried; the thing was neither of her parents had very much athletic ability. When they reached the pitch Rose introduced Albus to her friends and they seemed to get along well.

"In a line!" Madame Hooch barked.

Rose scurried to get between Abbey and Albus.

Hooch started counting off pairs. Every other person from what Rose could tell. That was okay Henry was next to Albus so Rose would be flying with him. As Madame Hooch neared her, Rose could tell that Henry would not be paired with her, but with Lysander. Rose told herself not to panic and through an apprehensive look to Albus; she looked to see who was standing next to Abbey. It was Scorpius. Her nerves turned into excitement which transfigured into butterflies down in her stomach, not literally of course.

"One," She pointed at Rose and then at Scorpius. "Two!" He looked at Rose, made eye contact, accidentally of course, because with that he quickly looked away.

Madame Hooch quickly finished counting off, "Get into your pairs and limit the talking to a minimum.

Rose walked toward him.

"Hi, I'm Ro – "

"Rose Weasley and you're in Ravenclaw." He said with a smirk, "I know. Strange for your family. I'm Scorpius." Rose smiled into those grey eyes of his and was a little dumbfounded by his confidence.

"I said cut the chit chat." Madame Hooch barked. "Okay. We are going to mount our brooms like this in a minute and number yourselves off, one and two. Number one will be flying first –"

"I'll be number one, so that makes you a two." Scorpius grinned when Rose shot him a glare.

Madam Hooch squawked on, "The first will round the pitch, when they come back the next will go. Be sure to focus on your landing. Make it slow and smooth. On the count of three. One – "

Scorpius zoomed off the ground. He flew around the pitch once, then to the middle and did a flip The group of first years oohed and ahhed. He flew the perimeter once more before swiftly gliding back to the ground right in front of Madam Hooch.

"Thank you Mr. Malfoy for being the first to demonstrate. You will also be the first to demonstrate detention, five o'clock, Monday and Tuesday, my office."

Everyone guffawed at him. Had Rose been in his position she would have been blushing uncontrollably, but Scorpius did not seemed phased at all.

"Next!" Hooch screamed. Rose was out of it, still thinking of that flip.

Scorpius looked at Rose. "You're next." Their hands touched for a second when he handed her the broom. Rose's hand felt like it was on fire.

"Oh, right." A light blush creeped onto her cheeks. How stupid, she hadn't been paying attention and know she had to go make and arse of herself on a broom.

Rose mounted her broom unsteadily and sputtered up into the air. Halfway around the pitch her broom seemed to die and she slowly drooped towards the ground. In a panic, she jolted the front end upward and darted into the air. She could have screamed and they might not have known because of her length from the ground. Somehow she made it back to the mass of people that looked as small as Bertie Botts'. Rose leaned forward and crashed to the ground in a huff. She was tangled in her robes and her hair was covering her face. She did not want to see anyone but when she couldn't take it any longer, she looked up through curly red strands and stared straight into the face of her partner. He smirked and said, "Nice going, Weasley. Looks like you do have a bit of family heritage in there after all."

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Author's Note: Hi, this is my first fanfic, so I hope you enjoy. This is first year obviously, but later I will show a few more years before the main part of the story, which is seventh year. Thanks to my sister, without her this story would be an unedited mess and all of you would probably hate it. Reviews are extremely appreciated. I know, not enough Scorpius yet, but have no fear, way more to come!


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